5 Great Apps to Take Grocery Shopping

In ye olden pre-iPhone days, I forgot my grocery list pretty much every other time I went shopping. But those days are gone: Now there are apps galore that help me keep track of my grocery list and help me figure out what to make for dinner. In fact, now I can just show up at the grocery store totally unprepared, and with the right app, I'll walk out with recipes and the corresponding ingredients to last me a week. As long as I bring the phone. Which I usually do.

Here are my favorite recipe/shopping apps:

How to Cook Everything ($4.99) -- This app includes 2,000 of New York Times food writer Mark Bittman's simple recipes by category. You can search by key ingredient and star your favorites. The app has recipe/shopping list integration, so you can send ingredients from a recipe straight to the app's grocery list (including amounts of each food). You can even name and store multiple grocery lists.

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Epicurous (Free) -- This app gives you a whopping 25,000 recipes divided into several different categories, including the most useful: weeknight dinners (see also dishes kids love). This app includes reviews and has almost the same great recipe/shopping list integration as the Bittman. The only downside is the ads, but hey, the app is free.

UCook (Free) -- This app has over 6,000 recipes by meal, also searchable by key ingredient. You can add ingredients to your shopping list by adding the entire recipe to your grocery list -- but it's a little awkward. On the other hand, UCook searches for special deals by your location, making this a good option for the budget-conscious cook.

GroceryZen (Free) -- A grocery list manager for those of you who shoot from the hip and cook without recipes. It has no recipes, though it allows you to add your own. It comes with a list of common grocery items that you can add to. And! You can email your grocery list, making it even easier to send your DH to the grocery store with 67 percent confidence that he'll come back with the stuff you requested.

Jamie Oliver 20 Minute Meals -- I don't have this because, holy cow, it costs a whole $7.99! It has the same features as the Bittman but also includes video. Actually, now that I'm writing about it, maybe I will download it after all ...

With so many recipe/grocery apps, will we eventually stop buying cookbooks altogether?